You're missing a few: Hagravens, Wisps, Spriggans, various spectral enemies (like dragon priests), Trolls, Ice Wraiths, Spiders, Dwarven enemies (mechanical spider/sphere/centurion), Atronachs, Dremora, Chaurus, Giants. You can create balanced characters in Skyrim and the game plays quite well that way. You're not really required to focus that narrowly in order to be successful.
It's the opposite for me, although I wouldn't say Fallout 3 was "generic". I think Bethesda really perfected their world building with Skyrim. It's so far beyond Fallout 3 in terms of variety and scale that it's almost hard to believe.
I found the people of Skyrim to be pretty generic medieval folk when compared to the quirky characters you met in Fallout and that is one of my reasons for preferring Fallout. Also hand to hand combat for me has never worked too well in first person games which is why I went for a mage. Sure Fallout had its hand to hand weapons but I never used any of them other than the shishkebab. I didn't find bows to be effective enough to deal with hordes of enemies whereas the fireball spell devasted everything in its path. I give Bethesda credit for at least giving people a little more personality than they had in Oblivion, but it still wasn't up the scratch with the strange folk you meet in a post apocalyptic wasteland.
It sounds to me like you were simply trying to find the fastest grinding route to hurry through the game. I built a very balanced character that had to alternate between bows/stealth, magic, and hand-to-hand in various situations. The game is more fun that way because it requires you to use more strategy to survive.
I spent 2 months playing it exclusively so I wouldn't say I have rushed, I didn't even touch the main quest until this past week and I still need to restore the thieves guild to its former glory so rushing is certainly something I didn't do. I very much took my time and concentrated on one hold at a time doing all the quests I could find in one before even thinking about moving on. I have only really finished with Whiterun, Winterhold and Dawnstar with my next focus being on Markarth. I don't see how you can put the needed stat points into all builds, there simply are not enough. As a mage I had to have loads in Destruction and Illusion and then Alteration to stay alive. Those alone have accounted for most of my skill points, using an online skill calculator I can tell you that I put 35 points into these 3 alone. Destruction spells cost a fortune and don't do enough damage if you don't invest so I have 13 points spent here. Illusion spells such as Frenzy do not work on strong enough enemies or the undead etc if you don't put a lot in here so I have 13 points spent here. Alterations spells are essential to surviving any sort of melee attacks when you are wearing nothing but robes and so I have 9 points spent here. I know I put a few points into smithing at the start when I thought I might need the amour but then decided to go with a mage build. If I wanted to create Daedra armour that costs nothing to use destruction spells I would now need to plough a load more into both smithing and enchantment so that I can add 2 enchants so I would lose that way too. I would expect to die a lot if I tried to put points into a 1 handed + destruction + archer build as would be master of none and do so little damage. Getting the points spread correct amongst smithing and alteration to simply stay alive would also prove far more of a challenge than it is worth. I would rather master route and be able to survive than make it 10x harder for myself by trying to do everything at once when so few skill points are available. I don't have the desire to play this game for another 100 hours and realistically anything above level 50 isn't going to happen as I am already feeling a bit burnt out. Sure if you want to put in 200 hours just so that you can put max points into all of the trees for damage dealing fine but the normal person isn't going to do that and will need to specialise.
My main character is always a High Elf, the true master race, unlike those dirty simpleton Nords. Battlemage is always my class. Heavy armour with a sword and shield plus destruction and restoration skills. That's my favourite way to play as I'm hench as fuck because of the armour and have the advantage of using weapons AND magicka. Of course I always make many characters with different styles to really get the full experience from the game. On Skyrim I've currently got: Shinji (the decendant of my Shinji from Oblivion) the High Elf battlemage, male, lvl 58, good, Lives in Whiterun. Ra Vaar the Argonian vampire thief/conjurer, female, lvl 24, evil, homeless. Bolag Gro Bumfun the Orc Warrior (heavy armour, two handed, no magic. Also the only character with a companion), male, lvl 29, evil, lives in Solitude. And an as yet uncreated 4th character. Breton full mage, female, good. On Oblivion I must have made over a dozen characters, most of which never got past level 10 but some were used a lot. I don't see the point in buying a game with as much depth and content as The Elder Scrolls and limiting yourself to one playstyle. Going from a flat out battle mage to a sneaky armourless vampire changes the gameplay dramatically.
That's the great thing about Skyrim. You don't have to load all your skills so narrowly. Yes, you probably do die more often, but the game is more fun due to the variety and strategy required. There's usually a way to combine a variety of lower skill attacks and get the same result as one devastating skill. I just prefer to experience a wider range of the attack styles in one run through of the game. Keeps it fresh. I also don't bother with the grinding approach. I tried that with the smithing skill for a bit and then decided that I didn't even need it. I finished the Companion quest line, the Winterhold College quest line, the Bard quest line, the Empire/Stormcloak quest line, and the main quest along with a few of the dragon priests and daedric quests, plus the Delver trophy in around 112 hours or so. That's not too bad for the amount of time put in and a character that is pretty balanced.
I haven't done any grinding, all I do is make sure I visit the trainer for my lowest ranked ability each level otherwise things like conjuring and block would still be down in the teens as I never use them. I didn't actually start doing this religiously until around level 18 so I missed out on a few skill levels here and there. [quote author=Armadeadn] Of course I always make many characters with different styles to really get the full experience from the game. [/quote] Maybe I will play it again with a new build but I don't see it being in the next 6 months. As I said before I am taking a break to get the desire to play it back. I found myself mindlessly trudging through dungeons last week and I don't want the game to feel like a chore hence the break.
I heard someone say it a few years ago and I liked it. The word henchman makes more sense to me these days.
I finally decided to make my fourth and likely final character in Skyrim. I'd decided ages ago that it was going to be female Breton mage but after seeing this video I was inspired to attempt a no kills playthrough like this guy. Currently Vienne Luciana is level 11 and has no kills to her name. Before I got the turn undead spell I did have to lure Draugr into traps and swinging blades to survive but technically I didn't kill them, they just failed to navigate the traps properly. I tried getting a follower and I rode on horseback all the way from Whiterun to the far north western corner of the map to get an Orc to join me on my travels. I found a word wall with a dragon and I (just about) managed to keep Borgakh the Steel Heart alive using healing hands long enough to fell the beast but it counted as a kill on my stats so reloaded and dismissed her. My aim is to have a high enough sneak so that I can simply avoid battles but if I do get spotted I've always got calm, fear, and turn undead at my disposal. It really is a unique way of playing the game and to start off with it's much harder than you might think. Without killing people it was hard to raise the funds to buy the spells I needed like calm and fear, and they're apprentice spells so I was only able to cast one before my magicka was depleted. Of course I'll not be doing any quests that require me to kill things meaning I'm fairly limited but it's still fun anyway. My only real concern is that although I'm finally going to actually make use of shouts like kyne's peace, disarm, animal allegiance, and dismay aquiring the souls to do so will be... challenging. I encountered a Dragon near the farms outside Whiterun and I watched as it killed the farmers and guards with ease. I managed to lure it back to the entrance to Whiterun and when it landed the guards went to town killing it. I just hope that when I get attacked by Dragons out in the wilderness I can get them to follow me to the nearest town so I can claim the soul.
As it is a rumour I will put it in here for now, rumour is that Bethesda will announce an Elder Scrolls MMO in May. http://www.tomsguide.com/us/ZeniMax-Bethesda-Elder-Scrolls-Online-MMO,news-14481.html
Anyone see the new update yet? It seems to feature more of those sexy kill cams including new ones for magic and archery.
They've submitted the 1.5 patch to console manufacturers. One of the announced changes it brings is: - Lydia will now offer marriage option after player purchases Breezehome in Whiterun Nice, I guess the community demanded that
Just in case you didn't know the new patch will "fix" the "issue" of smithing xp. So from now on the amount of xp you get from smithing will be directly tied to which item you smith. So smithing iron daggers will no longer give you loads of xp, bit gay really.